--------------------------------------------------------
One Saturday night I venture out to explore the night clubs in Hermanus. There is a marked difference between them all – one very trendy, plush, marble floored and serving up all manner of costly cocktails; to the dark and dirty big roomed venues that are for your “off your head” nutters; to one with a rock band playing cover versions on a small stage, in a very comfy and spacious cliff top bar.
All this I of course do in the name of research !!!! :-))))
Having now collected (and slowly read thro’) over 1000 different leaflets, magazines, flyers, brochures and adverts for local tourist businesses, I can now see more closely what’s on offer here for the discerning tourist.
Met up with a few South African friends and go to where they are camping under the stars with 30 other mad South Africans. Right on the beach, with fabulous views of the sea and surrounding mountains. The camp site evening air is filled with the delicious smell of braai cooking of all manner of meats and all handsomely washed down with afew beers.
As is traditional here, any and all sports are a very important aspect of life – so we zoom off to watch a game of rugby on TV at the local crowded pub – where the Western Province are playing against The Sharks from Durban – Western Province are from the Cape Town area and therefore the team that we all want to win – so there is much merriment when they win by 32 to 24.
For a few mornings in a row I go down to the cliff tops to spot whales (which seem to be more prolific in the mornings for some reason) – also watch many seals playing in the kelp forested sea shores, and shoals of dolphins flying thro the sea and air, which is all very humbling and magical.
Behind me on the cliff faces are a number of mad Abseilers, slowly descending over the cliff edge to the rocky shoreline below.
Well I have now been living in Hermanus Backpackers for the last 2 weeks and although its been great fun and you meet loads of interesting people, its all working out to be very costly indeed, so after a small amount of research I find myself moving into a lovely 2 bedroom self-contained cottage that has a swimming pool only 10 feet away from my front door. So organise to rent it out for October and November. This thankfully is less than half what I would have paid at the backpackers, so I am very happy about that. Plus when you live in a backpackers, you never really have any space to spread out properly; noise can be a problem when wanting a full nights sleep, as well as sometimes when you decide to leave things in the fridges, food can occasional do a magic-vanishing-act, which is obviously quite annoying.
Keep up the house hunting in the nearby areas of Fisherhaven, Onrus, Sandbaai and Vermont with the many estate agents.
It’s quite amazing how varied each house is here – every single one is completely different from the last one seen. All are detached but it’s the variety of their construction and design that is so different that makes looking around them so fascinating. Many seem to have en-suite bathrooms for all the bedrooms as a matter of course. One I looked around was currently being rented out to 11 policemen who are here to catch the Abalone poachers. So most houses are quite roomy.
Find out from the Traffic Police Dept, that I am legally able to drive a 20 seater mini-bus on my UK driving licence, without having to take any extra driving exams.
It takes about 4 lessons for someone to be ready to take the exam and these exam places are fully booked all the way up to 2005, with a new waiting list starting in Nov. for next years places. So I am relieved that I don’t have to go thro all that silliness.
As well as doing Sandboarding and Paragliding a few weeks ago - I have visited - a Quad biking company; the local beer brewery – Birkenhead Brewery; driven to the most southern tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) to see what’s happening there – not too much really apart from a light house and a shipwreck of a Japanese trawler that rumour has it was an insurance claim job; enjoy a marvellous massage to the very posh Caledon Spa, that has a Casino, Hotel and Restaurants attached; have 2 meetings with “The Shark Man” and will be on his boat for my very 1st Great White Shark dive on Friday 15th Oct. Which I cheekily blag for free – so thats £100 saved - I will be filming and photographing that trip for certain.
Visited and have now eaten at 6 local restaurants that were recommended to me – so that leaves only another 24 to go to then; gone to 3 of the 6 wineries; the Hermanus Flower Reserve/Park; taken over 300 good pictures that will be certainly vetted b4 use on the website + videoed over 2 hours of all sorts of things.
Weds 6th OctoberWeds last week was not a good day or night as we had a storm visit that proceeded to rain non-stop and we had rivers flowing down every road. I also suddenly found out that my lovely cottage has a few holes in the roof, which made for an interesting game of run-around-for-the-biggest-saucepans-possible, for half an hour.
Luckily I discover that it is all coming thro’ one part of the roof and am thankful that none is landing on my bed, as it was in the other bedroom.
This monstrous down pour was most welcome by the locals, as the local reservoir needs to be refilled urgently and this storm made the front page of the weekly local newspaper.
2 days later it starts raining again and we all run for cover – but this only lasts half the day, for which we are most grateful.
While all this water is descending from the sky there is very little reason to go outside, so I camp myself round at the Backpackers to take on the staff at games of golf and rallying on the Playstation2 and a huge session of pool in the bar.
Eventually finish off editing and compiling the Sandboarding DVDs that I have sold to 3 customers and zoom off to Cape Town to deliver them and collect my cash.
Take part in a Pub Quiz at a local restaurant, with our team coming second and rewarded with cocktails of our choice.
Tuesday 12th OctoberWell the big news today is that after many manic days of looking at over 35 properties, I eventually find something that fits the bill, and proceed to put an offer in and get it accepted a few days later. The house buying process here is a lot less complicated and slightly speedier than the UK.
It’s a clean and tidy small-ish 2 bedroom, one bathroom with open plan kitchen/lounge/dining room detached house, which covers about 75m2. Situated on a large plot of 714m2, that has the potential and enough space to put another 3 or 4 bedroom house and a swimming pool.
Completion is planned for Jan 2005. So its now official - you ALL now have a pad to stay at when you come and visit.
The mountains are visable from the front of the house and are an ever continuous range that sweep from left to right called the Overberg.
The sea and beaches are about a 5 minute walk from the front door and the nearest shop is a 2 minute walk.
As you can imagine there’s quite a bit of space around it and an empty plot next to it. Just by complete coincidence the house behind it is owned by the owners of Hermanus Backpackers which will make for some highly entertaining evenings I am sure of that.
Wednesday 13th October
My friends Tom & Kathryn arrive from London – so they are the first “guinea pigs” for a spot of Percy Tours. So off we zoom to explore Cape Town and the local area – The beaches around Cape Town; down to Hout Bay for a great seafood lunch of lobster and monster prawns; drive down the very scenic Chapmans Peak Drive, where we spot over 14 whales swimming in Hout Bay; down to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope and thro to Boulders Beach to swim with the Penguins; while enjoying games of pool at Stones on Long Street, and good meals of ostrich, crocodile and kudu steaks at Mama Africas.
We then head over to Hermanus to stay at my place.
Friday 15th OctoberWell today’s the day that Tom & I decide to become a small snack for a few big
Great White Sharks……….aaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!
So it’s up early for us – 5.30am – not our best time of the day.
So with blurred vision and fluffy heads we jump into a minibus with 4 other potential “victims” and arrive at Gansbaai half an hour later.
The boat is quite big (thankfully), with 2 decks and therefore giving you a higher angle of vision of the action. As well as a solid cage that houses 5 divers at once.
After about 30 mins the first great white shark turns up – and my are they big, graceful and fast.
Within an hour we have 6 different great whites circling the boat and the action is continuous. Saying that tho’ it is quite difficult to film them, as not only is the boat swaying about non-stop, so that you have to permanently hold-on to something solid, but each shark attack on the bait is fast and from different directions. I have therefore concluded that wildlife photography is a very patient game. Even tho' - this is one tourist activity that i will do again and again. Great fun and a marvelous experience that everyone should do.
There were 4 British scientists on board our boat, who have been surveying and studying these fabulous animals and over the last 5 years they have viewed over 1000 different Great White Sharks here – each identified by individualised markings on their dorsal fins. Their diets are not just seals, as I first thought. Seals only account for about 10% to 20% of their food. Any other slightly smaller fish, like tuna, other sharks, or rays make up the rest of their menus.
The sharks we saw were only babies of 1.5 to 2.5 metres long, as these are less experienced than fully grown adults that can reach lengths of up to 4 or 6 metres.
Also as of 3 days ago, the Great White Shark has now been listed as an endangered species, which means that every single country in the world is now banned from fishing them (but thats obviously extremely differcult to police.)
They have been protected in South Africa and Australian waters for over 15 years and are very much appreciated by the local sea-fishermen as they keep the seal numbers down. Seals as we all know love to eat tons of fish that we humans also like to have on our plates, so fishermen are all for Great White Sharks munching on a few seals.
I will most definitely be doing many more shark trips as I find them such fascinating creatures.
Hope you are all very well, Love to all and more adventures from South Africa soon.
Cheers
Percy “Shark Bait”
www.percytours.com
Designer Tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape region.
One Saturday night I venture out to explore the night clubs in Hermanus. There is a marked difference between them all – one very trendy, plush, marble floored and serving up all manner of costly cocktails; to the dark and dirty big roomed venues that are for your “off your head” nutters; to one with a rock band playing cover versions on a small stage, in a very comfy and spacious cliff top bar.
All this I of course do in the name of research !!!! :-))))
Having now collected (and slowly read thro’) over 1000 different leaflets, magazines, flyers, brochures and adverts for local tourist businesses, I can now see more closely what’s on offer here for the discerning tourist.
Met up with a few South African friends and go to where they are camping under the stars with 30 other mad South Africans. Right on the beach, with fabulous views of the sea and surrounding mountains. The camp site evening air is filled with the delicious smell of braai cooking of all manner of meats and all handsomely washed down with afew beers.
As is traditional here, any and all sports are a very important aspect of life – so we zoom off to watch a game of rugby on TV at the local crowded pub – where the Western Province are playing against The Sharks from Durban – Western Province are from the Cape Town area and therefore the team that we all want to win – so there is much merriment when they win by 32 to 24.
For a few mornings in a row I go down to the cliff tops to spot whales (which seem to be more prolific in the mornings for some reason) – also watch many seals playing in the kelp forested sea shores, and shoals of dolphins flying thro the sea and air, which is all very humbling and magical.
Behind me on the cliff faces are a number of mad Abseilers, slowly descending over the cliff edge to the rocky shoreline below.
Well I have now been living in Hermanus Backpackers for the last 2 weeks and although its been great fun and you meet loads of interesting people, its all working out to be very costly indeed, so after a small amount of research I find myself moving into a lovely 2 bedroom self-contained cottage that has a swimming pool only 10 feet away from my front door. So organise to rent it out for October and November. This thankfully is less than half what I would have paid at the backpackers, so I am very happy about that. Plus when you live in a backpackers, you never really have any space to spread out properly; noise can be a problem when wanting a full nights sleep, as well as sometimes when you decide to leave things in the fridges, food can occasional do a magic-vanishing-act, which is obviously quite annoying.
Keep up the house hunting in the nearby areas of Fisherhaven, Onrus, Sandbaai and Vermont with the many estate agents.
It’s quite amazing how varied each house is here – every single one is completely different from the last one seen. All are detached but it’s the variety of their construction and design that is so different that makes looking around them so fascinating. Many seem to have en-suite bathrooms for all the bedrooms as a matter of course. One I looked around was currently being rented out to 11 policemen who are here to catch the Abalone poachers. So most houses are quite roomy.
Find out from the Traffic Police Dept, that I am legally able to drive a 20 seater mini-bus on my UK driving licence, without having to take any extra driving exams.
It takes about 4 lessons for someone to be ready to take the exam and these exam places are fully booked all the way up to 2005, with a new waiting list starting in Nov. for next years places. So I am relieved that I don’t have to go thro all that silliness.
As well as doing Sandboarding and Paragliding a few weeks ago - I have visited - a Quad biking company; the local beer brewery – Birkenhead Brewery; driven to the most southern tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) to see what’s happening there – not too much really apart from a light house and a shipwreck of a Japanese trawler that rumour has it was an insurance claim job; enjoy a marvellous massage to the very posh Caledon Spa, that has a Casino, Hotel and Restaurants attached; have 2 meetings with “The Shark Man” and will be on his boat for my very 1st Great White Shark dive on Friday 15th Oct. Which I cheekily blag for free – so thats £100 saved - I will be filming and photographing that trip for certain.
Visited and have now eaten at 6 local restaurants that were recommended to me – so that leaves only another 24 to go to then; gone to 3 of the 6 wineries; the Hermanus Flower Reserve/Park; taken over 300 good pictures that will be certainly vetted b4 use on the website + videoed over 2 hours of all sorts of things.
Weds 6th OctoberWeds last week was not a good day or night as we had a storm visit that proceeded to rain non-stop and we had rivers flowing down every road. I also suddenly found out that my lovely cottage has a few holes in the roof, which made for an interesting game of run-around-for-the-biggest-saucepans-possible, for half an hour.
Luckily I discover that it is all coming thro’ one part of the roof and am thankful that none is landing on my bed, as it was in the other bedroom.
This monstrous down pour was most welcome by the locals, as the local reservoir needs to be refilled urgently and this storm made the front page of the weekly local newspaper.
2 days later it starts raining again and we all run for cover – but this only lasts half the day, for which we are most grateful.
While all this water is descending from the sky there is very little reason to go outside, so I camp myself round at the Backpackers to take on the staff at games of golf and rallying on the Playstation2 and a huge session of pool in the bar.
Eventually finish off editing and compiling the Sandboarding DVDs that I have sold to 3 customers and zoom off to Cape Town to deliver them and collect my cash.
Take part in a Pub Quiz at a local restaurant, with our team coming second and rewarded with cocktails of our choice.
Tuesday 12th OctoberWell the big news today is that after many manic days of looking at over 35 properties, I eventually find something that fits the bill, and proceed to put an offer in and get it accepted a few days later. The house buying process here is a lot less complicated and slightly speedier than the UK.
It’s a clean and tidy small-ish 2 bedroom, one bathroom with open plan kitchen/lounge/dining room detached house, which covers about 75m2. Situated on a large plot of 714m2, that has the potential and enough space to put another 3 or 4 bedroom house and a swimming pool.
Completion is planned for Jan 2005. So its now official - you ALL now have a pad to stay at when you come and visit.
The mountains are visable from the front of the house and are an ever continuous range that sweep from left to right called the Overberg.
The sea and beaches are about a 5 minute walk from the front door and the nearest shop is a 2 minute walk.
As you can imagine there’s quite a bit of space around it and an empty plot next to it. Just by complete coincidence the house behind it is owned by the owners of Hermanus Backpackers which will make for some highly entertaining evenings I am sure of that.
Wednesday 13th October
My friends Tom & Kathryn arrive from London – so they are the first “guinea pigs” for a spot of Percy Tours. So off we zoom to explore Cape Town and the local area – The beaches around Cape Town; down to Hout Bay for a great seafood lunch of lobster and monster prawns; drive down the very scenic Chapmans Peak Drive, where we spot over 14 whales swimming in Hout Bay; down to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope and thro to Boulders Beach to swim with the Penguins; while enjoying games of pool at Stones on Long Street, and good meals of ostrich, crocodile and kudu steaks at Mama Africas.
We then head over to Hermanus to stay at my place.
Friday 15th OctoberWell today’s the day that Tom & I decide to become a small snack for a few big
Great White Sharks……….aaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!
So it’s up early for us – 5.30am – not our best time of the day.
So with blurred vision and fluffy heads we jump into a minibus with 4 other potential “victims” and arrive at Gansbaai half an hour later.
The boat is quite big (thankfully), with 2 decks and therefore giving you a higher angle of vision of the action. As well as a solid cage that houses 5 divers at once.
After about 30 mins the first great white shark turns up – and my are they big, graceful and fast.
Within an hour we have 6 different great whites circling the boat and the action is continuous. Saying that tho’ it is quite difficult to film them, as not only is the boat swaying about non-stop, so that you have to permanently hold-on to something solid, but each shark attack on the bait is fast and from different directions. I have therefore concluded that wildlife photography is a very patient game. Even tho' - this is one tourist activity that i will do again and again. Great fun and a marvelous experience that everyone should do.
There were 4 British scientists on board our boat, who have been surveying and studying these fabulous animals and over the last 5 years they have viewed over 1000 different Great White Sharks here – each identified by individualised markings on their dorsal fins. Their diets are not just seals, as I first thought. Seals only account for about 10% to 20% of their food. Any other slightly smaller fish, like tuna, other sharks, or rays make up the rest of their menus.
The sharks we saw were only babies of 1.5 to 2.5 metres long, as these are less experienced than fully grown adults that can reach lengths of up to 4 or 6 metres.
Also as of 3 days ago, the Great White Shark has now been listed as an endangered species, which means that every single country in the world is now banned from fishing them (but thats obviously extremely differcult to police.)
They have been protected in South Africa and Australian waters for over 15 years and are very much appreciated by the local sea-fishermen as they keep the seal numbers down. Seals as we all know love to eat tons of fish that we humans also like to have on our plates, so fishermen are all for Great White Sharks munching on a few seals.
I will most definitely be doing many more shark trips as I find them such fascinating creatures.
Hope you are all very well, Love to all and more adventures from South Africa soon.
Cheers
Percy “Shark Bait”
www.percytours.com
Designer Tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape region.
